As agreed upon last night and as per SANP's requirements, we will be doing an EMP for the bouldering for the whole of the Cape Peninsula, including Red Hill areas.

Without this EMP, Red Hill will remain closed indefinitely.

Red Hill's moratorium stands until the bouldering EMP has been finalised.

SANP will complete the EMP by end of August with the MCSA and bouldering community's assistance.
SANP will then give a presentation of the newly drafted EMP to the bouldering community at the MCSA Club House in Cape Town in early September, thereafter opening the EMP to the other mountain users through October.
At the end of October, the draft will be finalised and the EMP released.

Thank you again for all the assistance and support from the bouldering community. We are nearly there.

Thank you to Delaney and all that was involved with the process. Sorry I couldnt be there but its a bit of a way to fly from London
It looks like this process will hopefully secure boulderings future in the Cape. I think this may also come with the need for a proper guide book to be published with all the access regulations and guidelines that will inevitably come with the EMP.
Again, many thanks to all involved
Nick

We are nearing the final stages of the Bouldering EMP. I am busy setting up a meeting this week with SANP to confirm boulder sites and which of these sites will require site inspections. As far as I have been told, the EMP document itself is nearly complete.

I will continue to keep all in the loop and once again, thank you for your patience and support.

Niel and I met with SANP yesterday evening and went through the first draft of the Bouldering EMP. Everything is looking very good and it was a great meeting. SANP has been very helpful to date.

The next phase will be the site visits which will hopefully take place this month so that the final draft can be completed and sent out to the bouldering community and other mountain users for comments.

This will be around the beginning of October so that at the end of October, all users' comments will be taken into account and added to the draft if valid so that the final approved Bouldering EMP will go live early November.

Redhill is to be included in the site visits so all is looking very promising.

Monday 3rd December at 16H00: CBD boulders
Tuesday 4th December at 14H00/Friday 7th December at 14H00 (TBC): Redhill and Blackhill boulders

Topside and the Forests (Newlands and Cecilia) still need to be confirmed but Topside will be done over a weekend. As soon as I have more information, I will let you know.

Just to clarify in case there is any confusion, it is only Redhill (Grootkop, Coppermine and Easter Island) that is currently off limits to bouldering. All other areas are still open and are under review for the purpose of the EMP only. We will publish all areas that are off limits and those that aren't once the EMP has been finalised.

The site visit at CBD has been completed and it seems that, since most of the boulders have rocky/stoney bases, the biggest problem would be the unofficial paths in between them. Since the service path already exists, that will no doubt be the main path to the boulders and then a contour path will be established to access all the boulders.

We will only know once we see the final draft of the EMP.

We are now waiting on the site manager at Redhill to let us know when he/she is available for the site visit there.

Unfortunately, I completely forgot how to get to Vajra and Mushroom areas :-( The result of not visiting Redhill in a while.

It's sad to say that on some of the boulders at Redhill, Leighan and I found fresh chalk marks on the rock. For those of you who have adhered to the moratorium, thank you very much. For those who haven't, please can you not climb at Redhill again until the EMP has been finalised.

I can Assist with visiting Newlands Forrest and Cecilia Forrest, I know the areas very well and would be very keen to help out although I have school till 3:00 during the week but my weekends are usually free.

Thank you again to everyone who responded to assist with the site visits.

Update is as follows:

Thursday 24th January from 2pm: Alan will show SANP Vajra and Mushroom at Redhill (Confirmed)
Saturday 26th January from 9am: Adam will show SANP Echo Valley, Amazon and Bonnydoon (TBC)
Saturday 2nd February from 9am: Niel will show SANP Silvermine Boulder and Shady Nook (TBC)

We are still waiting on SANP to get back to us on available times for site visits with Sheldon for Cecilia and Newlands Forests.

Huge thanks to Alan Hills for showing Leighan from SANP Vajra and Mushroom. Redhill site visits are now all done.
CBD site visits are all done.
Blackhill site visit is done.
Huge thanks to Adam Ludford for showing Leighan from SANP Amazon, Echo Valley and Bonnydoon.

The only outstanding site visits are:

Silvermine Boulders and Shady Nook (Niel Mostert is liaising with Leighan from SANP for a suitable date and time - I will let you know once this has been confirmed.)
Cecilia and Newlands Forests (I am still waiting on Jannie from SANP to let us know his availability for these visits - I will let you know once this has been confirmed.)